Drought hinders California's clean energy goals

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Sunday (http://bit.ly/1qTT5Ej ) that a drought stretching on for years could slash the amount of clean energy collected from the state's dams and send emissions spewing from other sources.

State officials are pushing utility companies by 2020 to obtain 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources that also include wind and solar power.

California is in its third dry year, and officials say many power-generating reservoirs are low. That forces power companies to buy energy from conventional plants that burn natural gas.

The newspaper reports that the drought causes farmers to pump more ground water to irrigate their crops, putting higher demands on the power grid or spewing pollution from diesel-powered generators.

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